Hurricanes Igor and Tomas get their names retired

The names Tomas and Igor will no longer be used to name hurricanes in the Atlantic, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced this March. Hurricane Igor made landfall near Cape Race, Newfoundland on September 21, 2010, and was that island's most damaging hurricane in 75 years, with $200 million in damage. Hurricane Tomas smashed through the Lesser Antilles Islands on October 30 - 31, 2010, dealing a particularly harsh blow to St. Lucia, where eight died and damage was estimated at $500 million. Tomas also killed 35 people on Haiti, and contributed to a cholera epidemic that killed thousands.

Figure 2. MODIS satellite image of Tropical Storm Tomas taken at 10:30am EDT Saturday October 30, 2010, as the storm began lashing the Lesser Antilles. At the time, Tomas was a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph winds. Image credit: NASA.

The retirement of hurricane namesThe WMO maintains a list of hurricane names for the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific that repeats itself every six years. The names Igor and Tomas in the Atlantic would have appeared again in 2016, but will be replaced by Ian and Tobias. Each spring, the WMO meets to decide if any names should be retired from the list, due to notable death or destruction caused by one of the past season's storms. Any country that is a member of the WMO can request that a name be retired. If a country seriously affected by a hurricane does not request retirement of the name, then the name will not be retired. In the recent past, Mexico, in particular, has been reluctant to request retirement significant storms that have affected them. In 2010, two significant hurricanes affected the country, but Mexico chose not to request retirement of either: Hurricane Alex, which killed twelve people and did $1.5 billion in damage, and Hurricane Karl, which killed 22 and did $206 million in damage. Back in 2005, Mexico also did not request retirement of Hurricane Emily, which made two landfalls in Mexico as a major hurricane, destroying thousands of buildings, but not claiming any lives. A new storm named Emily will appear this year, as we are recycling the names from 2005 that were not retired (2005 holds the record for most retired names, with five.) Probably the best example of a hurricane that did not get its name retired, but deserved to, was Hurricane Gordon of 1994, which killed 1145 people on Haiti. Haiti did not send a representative to the 1995 WMO meeting when retirements for 1994 were decided. Gordon did not affect any other countries strongly enough to motivate them to request retirement, and the name Gordon will be used again in 2012.

Since Atlantic hurricanes began getting women's names in 1953, 76 names have been retired, an average of 1.3 retired names per year. The list includes one tropical storm, Allison of 2001, that caused billions in damage from its heavy rains. The storm with the most appearances so far is Arlene, which has appeared nine times: 1959, 1963, 1967, 1971, 1981, 1987, 1993, 1999, 2005. Arlene will make its tenth appearance this year. One exception to the retirement rule: before 1979, some storm names were simply dropped. For example, in 1966, Fern was substituted for Frieda, and no reason was given. Only three Eastern Pacific hurricanes have had their names retired--Hurricane Ismael of 1995, Hurricane Pauline of 1997, and Hurricane Kenna of 2002. All of these storms hit Mexico.

Cool Katrina animationA new visualization created by Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois shows Hurricane Katrina spinning over the Gulf of Mexico during a 36-hour period in August, 2005. The animation is part of a full-length planetarium film called Dynamic Earth screened at the Fulldome UK festival on March 12 - 13. You can see the video at the newscientist.com or DynamicEarth web sites. The video description: Trajectories follow moist air rising into intense "hot tower" thunderstorms, and trace strong winds around the eye wall; rapidly rising air is yellow, sinking air blue. The sun, moon, and stars show the passing of time. The visualization highlights Katrina's awesome power and fierce beauty.

This would mean a complete meltdown has certainly (and officially been declared) to have occurred at reactor #2. If so then they will be having to evacuate the rest of the reactors they are working on for the radiation in the region will surge beyond survivable levels.

We also know at least partial meltdowns have occurred at #1 and #3 but judging from what is going on it sounds like the other 2 either have or about to undergo full meltdowns as well.

We know the spent fuel rods of #4 melted down and the spent fuel rods at 1-2-3-4 also either have or were scattered in the explosions.

No matter how you slice it multiple nuclear meltdowns have occurred or are occurring and when that happens you can't stop it. It reaches temperatures that water cannot contain. It eats through the containment structures which is why #2 fell into the pool below. Guess what? It doesn't stop there. It will eat through that as well.

All you pray for now is NO FIRE AND NO EXPLOSIONS for if you do get those? Then it IS on the level of Chernobyl in terms of harmful effects spreading far and wide. Chernobyl melted down but it was the major fire that spewed the radiation so quickly and so distant. So if you get a raging fire which is quite possible now then you're right where the Russians were.

Then it's time to bring in the 10s of thousands of helicopter sorties dumping cement on the reactors.

Maybe they should have been doing that already. Who is to say.

I agree that 1 and 3 are likely in the process of a full meltdown. I'm hoping (maybe foolishly) that #2 will stay within the concrete base. If it melts through the concrete base, it will start working into soil. The soil will help radiate the heat and contain the corium, but the soil also contains water. Where there is water, there is steam explosions, which means more radiation spread.

Yep, its Georgia and Floridas turn today and Florida and Carolina's tomorrow. Could get pretty ugly again today and tomorrow. Way to much moisture streaming out of the GOM meeting the cold front with Shear in place as well. Things are in place for some severe stuff.

Carolinas and Georgia will not get much more than rain and some thunder, dynamics are not strong in either area, moisture is not very impressive there and dew points/temps are too low. The SPC isn't concerned with either area. South Georgia yes but other than that no.

TORNADO WATCH 79 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM EDT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONSFLC001-003-007-009-017-019-023-029-031-035-037-04 1-047-053-057-067-069-075-083-089-095-097-101-103-105-107-109-1 17-119-121-123-125-127-310000-/O.NEW.KWNS.TO.A.0079.110330T1510Z-110331T0000Z/

Hey man looks like its gonna be a 2 day severe threat now! Tomorrow is still going to be the heaviest rain and highest severe threat, however today we may get some severe weather as well. The SPC came to notice that squall line is advancing fast, and the air mass over Central Florida supports severe weather, so the line today will likely hold strong and won't weaken like WRF and another model was showing.

Its possible that this initial line may lose some power though as it heads into Florida, its rapidly outrunning the front. Tomorrow though, the piece of energy that fires up the second MCS/squall line will be tracking right over Central Florida. That means high rain totals and bigger severe threat.

Quoting hydrus:Mornin Gro..I just watched AccuWeather,s prediction for this years hurricane season. They stated that Southern Florida and the Outer Banks/Carolinas region would be" higher concern areas " during the mid and late in the season.........Those guys are amazing...who would of guessed such a thing.....wow....

Hard to believe. The thought of a Hurricane hitting South Florida and the Carolinas (sorry presslord) is hard to believe. Could it have anything to do with the high water content in the open ocean?

Hail was heavy on the West Bank in New Orleans: videoPosted on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 8:29AMA storm hit the New Orleans area overnight and hail was heavy on the West Bank. The Times-Picayune's Kim Gritter gets shots of what happened.

Hail was heavy on the West Bank in New Orleans: videoPosted on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 8:29AMA storm hit the New Orleans area overnight and hail was heavy on the West Bank. The Times-Picayune's Kim Gritter gets shots of what happened.

Maybe we ought to get a job at Accuweather, say stupid things and get the sheep to believe it,(since they don't think for themselves)and make our 6 digit salaries? looks like some of them already beat us to it.